On the Ocean Blue
by Tetris Remix
Summary: Being a pirate isn't that much different from being a witch. Okay, it is. But that's the best part, isn't it? Reincarnated!Fem!Harry
1. Train Station

Um. Hello. It's me? *dodges flaming missiles and killing curses* Ahahaha. Yeah. I think that Inner Demons is dead. Unfortunately. But if anyone wants to adopt it, I'll gladly give it away. Just PM me, and we'll work it out.

This is a new story, if you can't tell. I'm hoping you'll enjoy it :) It's a Reincarnated!Fem!Harry. Do you notice a trend here? Fem!Naruto, Fem!Harry? It's because I think there's a tendency in maga authors to make female characters weak. Not Hermione. Nor Hancock. But strongest character in HP? Harry, Dumbledore, Voldemort, Gellert Grindelwald. All male. In OP? Gol D Roger, Whitebeard, Shanks, Silvers Rayleigh, Zoro, Luffy, Sanji, Ace, Sengoku, Akainu, Aokiji, Kizaru... What's the underlying pattern here? I mean, come on! That's off the top of my head. Where's the girl power? It's also notably worse in the Manga/Anime department. Hence, the Fem!Characters.

For the entire fic :

I do NOT own One Piece nor do I own Harry Potter. They are the property of Eiichiro Oda, and J.K. Rowling respectively. I merely play in their cosmic sandbox.

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19-year-old witch Rose Potter blinked, opened her mouth to say something then closed it again. The scene before her…How could she describe it? It looked like something the Twins might think up for a Samhain celebration. Well, the remaining one, anyway, Rose amended.

For one, it seemed like she was back at the ghostly King's Cross Station she had briefly seen during her fight with Voldemort. Only, it was different this time around: there was no Dumbledore waiting for her there, blue eyes alight with that signature twinkle. Not only that, but instead of being made completely of vaguely transparent white stone, everything in the station –from the sturdy pillars to the two trains currently docked at the platforms- was made of some kind of dark grey stone veined with slightly glowing green. Secondly, a grandma was seated at a table smack in the middle of the platform she was standing on. The Grandma sipped peacefully at a teacup made form the same material as the station, before setting it down with a slight 'chink' on its corresponding plate. Two eyes rose to meet hers, and speared her with their intensity.

They were bright green- the green of an Avada Kedavra, the very same green that had stared back at her from the mirror for as long as she could remember.

"Well?" The Grandma asked. Her thin and reedy voice echoed slightly in the completely empty station. "Aren't you going to sit down?"

Indeed, there was a second seat directly across the Grandma, with its very own mug of tea steaming patiently away. A plate filled with a few pastries was set innocuously next to it.

Rose started forwards, manners taking control of her body and making her mechanically sit down on the offered seat. Her hands rested awkwardly on her lap until she cupped the mug between them, absently relishing the warmth that it provided. Now that she had a source of heat to compare it with, the station seemed vastly colder than before. Rose shivered and carefully took a sip of the tea after blowing to cool it down.

"So. You've died. Congratulations."

Rose choked on her tea. "What!?"

"Gyahahahahaha!" The Grandma burst out laughing. "You should have seen your face! I'm only joking. Let me introduce myself: I'm Death."

Now, Rose was sure she was being the butt of some kind of joke. There was no way Death was a shrivelled old lady wearing a decades out of style frilly dress. She hadn't survived a war to put up with this kind of thing.

"Excuse me, but is this some kind of joke?" Rose hissed. "I was in the middle of an Auror raid, and I really need to get back. My team is in a critical situation and it is a serious criminal offence to keep me here, to keep me from doing my job!"

"Relax, shorty. Your team made it out fine. You, on the other hand… Not so much. And, FYI, is that how you humans say it? FYI, I'm wearing this appearance is only for your sake. I know it looks ridiculous, but normal humans don't react well to seeing a skeleton talking to them, you know."

Rose gritted her teeth before taking a calming breath. "Look, I don't know who you are-"

"I already told you, I'm Death. La Faucheuse. The Shinigami. Thanatos. Hel. Mictecacihuatl. Whatever. If you'd met your maternal grandmother, you'd know, because what you're seeing right now, is a copy of her body. You've got her eyes, you know."

"-but I'm really not in a joking mood. I have a job, and I'm damn good at it. People are relying on me right now, and if you don't let me go, they could be in serious danger."

The Grandma, or Death as she styled herself to be, seemed to have enough of her protesting, as she stood up suddenly. A snapping of fingers later, and the wrinkled face had wavered before disappearing. In it's place, the grinning face of a skull. Its jaw clacked open and the same reedy voice filtered out.

"You believe me now, Miss Rose Juniper Potter-Evans? Geez."

Rose was glad she was seated or she might have dropped to the floor. Her anger evaporated as quickly as it had appeared, doused by genuine surprise.

"You died. Hurray, congratulations. Only, you know, you're the Mistress of Death. It means that you're my boss. Well, not really because you know what would happen if a human was the boss of a Kami-Class entity? Madness, that's what."

That couldn't be true, Rose thought. She wasn't in possession of the three Hallows anymore. The Stone was lying somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, and the Elder Wand was in pieces. She said as much to 'Death'.

"Wellll… 'Master of Death' isn't really a title that you can just abandon, you know? Especially not by snapping a measly piece of wood and throwing away a pebble. All you really needed to activate that title in earnest was a brush with Death. And lo and behold, you got hit right in the kisser by, dun dun dun: a Killing Curse. The first time around, the Horcrux in you died in your stead. Second time was the charm, if you'll pardon my pun. Brilliant, if I do say so myself! No, you've really become the Mistress of Death. That means… you get to have a few perks." Death paused and hummed pensively, before snapping its fingers in a 'aha!' gesture. " Think of it as the chocolate squares on the pillows of your hotel suite."

The Girl-Who-Lived lifted a shaking hand. "Pause. Rewind. I'm dead, I'm not coming to terms with that yet, but there's something more important. Did everyone in my team make it out okay of the raid on that Neo-Death Eater's Manor?"

The skeleton faced Granny sighed. "Yes,yes. I already told you. Apart from you, everyone got out fine. Which is why we're in this predicament. You're dead, but you're the Mistress of Death. That's kind of a conundrum, don't you think?"

Rose didn't answer. Her mind was whirling and she covered her face with her clammy hands. There was a sick feeling in her stomach, only now that she was _dead_, could she still throw up? Her stomach seemed to think so.

"Hey, if it helps, you're taking this better than most people. One guy, I remember, tried to fight me," Death shook his head fondly, like a parent amused by a wayward child's past antics. "Haaaa, Roger. Funny man. Do you need a little time?"

"No," Rose gritted out, focusing her mind. "You said there were perks. What are they?" the witch asked coolly, tone business-like.

Death leaned back into the overstuffed chair it was sitting in, liver spotted hands in a steeple. The empty orbits of the skull stared at her unseeingly for a while before Death spoke up again. "Well, it's like this. Normally, when you die, you get a clean slate, you know? Reincarnation, yadda yadda. According to past behaviour, yadda yadda yadda. If you're really bad, like that Voldemort fellow, you don't get reincarnated at all but you get stuck in Limbo. Now. It's when you're reborn that the perks you get come in: normally, your mind is wiped. The defining traits of your personality are there, like a vague outline of a drawing. Life lets you add details, shadows, highlights and colours to that base. You can even change the outline if you try hard enough.

You, on the other hand? I'd let you keep your memories. A few of your abilities, like magic. Give you a predisposition to earn a few more. That kind of stuff. Freebies, you catch my drift? Just cause you're a special little snowflake."

Rose nodded, deep in thought. "And if I refuse? The reincarnation?"

The entity burst out laughing. "You can't! You might be Mistress of Death, but even you can't alter the natural order of things. Death is a part of a cycle much, much, much bigger than you are. You are a speck in the grand order of thing. A bigger speck than most you may be, but still a speck."

"I suppose I don't have a choice, then. I accept. Two last things. Where, exactly, do I get to be reborn? "

"Oh… Umm. Well, the exact name of that universe is OP-954, but that doesn't tell you much, now does it? It's a world with humans, and a whole host of other creatures. It's a lot like your world, except instead of wizards there's pirates. And instead of a single Dark Lord, it's an entire Corrupt World Government. In this world, there are amazing fruits that can give you powers beyond belief, but also take away the ability to swim. To explain every single amazing thing native to this universe would take me hours, so I'll cut it short. Just know that it's one of the most entertaining universes to watch and that I'm sure you'll feel right at home, Rose."

"A different universe? Entirely? Wow," Rose gulped down her tea to quell her uneasiness. "And… Is there a possibility… I mean, a chance that I might meet someone from my old world, that's been reincarnated in the new one?"

A few people she desperately wanted to see again or meet came to mind. Her father, her mother, Sirius, Remus, Tonks…

"Meeeeh. You might. I think there's a few that crossed over to good old OP-954. This world is a big one, though, so you might end up not meeting them at all. And even if you did, they might not recognise you, mind swipe and all. Think of this new world as clean break: with no one to remember how you used to be, you have no reputation to live up to than the one you create yourself. Out with the old, in with the new, as they say hmmm?"

Pausing to let that sink in, Death observed Rose. The young girl had grown quite a lot, losing the gangly awkwardness that came with adolescence, and properly growing into her features. Lily's flaming red hair, that proud Potter nose, and of course, those signature green eyes made for a rather striking face. The lightning bolt scar of legend was displayed proudly on her forehead, as well as a multitude of others, speckling the girl's very fair skin as reminders of battles past and won. No, Rose Potter was no delicate flower. She was a warrior, and would without a doubt build herself a new home in her next life.

Rose's face was quite expressive, and Death knew when she made a relative peace with her impending future. Those eyes of hers narrowed, and her lips thinned with determination. She looked up, and stared at him without flinching. _Atta girl_, he thought fondly.

"How?"

A frail, bony finger pointed at the train docked at the platform they were on. Rose drained her cup and set it down before standing up. She made to leave the table, but a hand grasped her wrist, and a sting made her hiss. A swathe of cool soothed the slightly painful sensation quickly enough and she tugged her wrist free to see that a symbol had been tattooed on it.

"Really?" Rose chuckled bitterly.

"What can I say? I'm quite fond of that symbol, it has quite pizzaz," Death grinned before waving its hand at her, shooing her. "Well, off you go then."

Rose went to the train and opened one of its ancient doors. The dorr seemed to be made from wood, but she'd never seen a wood quite so black. Sparing it no thought, she entered one of the many deserted compartments. There was an uncomfortable pang of melancholy as she recognised the style of the compartment: it was identical to the compartments of the Hogwarts Express. It was there her life had started to look up. It seemed ironic it was there that she ended this life, and started another one as well. Only this time, there would be no Ron, no Hermione, no Neville, no Luna, no Dumbledore, or anyone she knew for that matter. Not even that ponce, Draco.

She sat down, and breathed out slowly, closing her eyes even as the train jerked to a start, before smoothly gliding along the tracks, the rhythmic sounds of the locomotive lulling her to sleep.

On her wrist, a circled inscribed within a triangle, the whole thing cut down the middle by a straight line, the mark of one incredible destiny and the symbol of the start of another.

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Tadaaaa! Read at your leisure, and review if you can please.

Cheers,

Tetris Remix.


	2. Welcome to Oase

**Hello again, my minions. Welcome to the seventh circle of Hel-I mean, Chapter Two of "On the Ocean Blue".**

**Responses to the reviews :**

**Phidias Bagel : Thanks :) I hope you'll like where it's going, because it's a lot of fun to write.**

**Rosemary Thief : Oh my! I'm blushing. You were wanting. And I have delivered. Praised be the Gods o'Fanfiction and in particular, the Head God of Writing, Plot-Bunny the Dogged.**

**Isali : I agree, so I went with her being reincarnated as... Well, you'll see. Not Zoro, though, I'm sorry.**

**Guest : Thank you! By all means, read on.**

**Thank you all for your reviews, and your faves, and your follows. They are wonderful pieces of happiness that light up the grey monotony that is my life. Just kidding. My life is great.**

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Her birth was an abrupt changing of worlds: one moment she had been safe and warm, and the next, she was cold, scared, disoriented and screaming her head off.

Someone wiped her down with a warm soft cloth, before another person she loosely identified by scent as Mother took her in her arms, Rose shrieking all the while. Of course, she had heard Mother's voice while in the safe void: it had filtered through, and it sang often in deep soothing tones. She hadn't understood the exact meaning of the songs themselves, but the emotions behind them were unmistakable : affection, love, peace. But right now, it was another alien thing to her, and did nothing to quiet her down.

Her newborn eyesight was quite similar to her vision without her glasses in her previous life, which meant she could vaguely see menacing big blobs of strangely muted colors moving around. On the other hand, the rest of her senses, especially her sense of smell, were hyper-developed.

Everything around her was new, and not. It was… Loud, and bright, too. As well as cold and dry. It was everything the safe void she was in before was not, and the difference was jarring and scary.

Rose struggled to move her arms, to do anything, but it was no use. Her entire body felt like her arm that one time when Lockhart had banished every bone in it: weak and watery. The more she struggled, the more she realized how trapped she was in an useless body, and the more she panicked.

The vicious cycle of dread was only broken when the Mother voice hummed slowly as she was pressed against a warm chest. The chest buzzed slowly too with the hum, and soon all her sense were focused on that soothing and familiar noise. Her eyes closed, and she gurgled in relief before slipping in a deep sleep, calmed down by this familiar feeling in a brand new world.

"Aurelius, look. She's fallen asleep. Our cute little angel was tired," Marigold Jewelry cooed at her newborn daughter, leaning against the headboard of her bed. Her face was pinched by exhaustion, and purple smudges bruised the undersides of her eyes, matching with the color of her irises. "She's so beautiful, Aurelius. She already has hair!"

Aurelius Jewelry sat beside his wife and gazed adoringly at his chil. His hand reached out to brush against the crown of his baby's head, where a small crop of pink fuzz was already proudly sticking out. "Bonney had the same fuzzy head, Mari-chan. Hey! It's not fair that both our children have your hair," he whined childishly. "Maybe she'll have my eyes?"

Marigold preened theatrically. "I can't help it if my hair is so perfect that both my cute daughters wanted the same! I don't know about your eyes, but look," she bopped her daughter's nose gently with a slightly shaking finger. "She has your cute little nose."

"O-oi! My nose isn't cute! It's manly!"

"Shh! You'll cutely wake her up!" Marigold's eyes became darker, the violet irises flashing dangerously. "And we wouldn't want that, now would we?"

"No! Definitely not! But, what are we going to name her?" Aurelius squeaked. Sometimes he regretted having married an ex-Vice Admiral of the Marines. He was the same rank, but she was still terrifying.

"Anne. It's such a cute name."

There was no hesitation in Marigold's voice as she rocked the newly christened Anne lovingly. Aurelius acquiesced wordlessly, feeling the moment was too precious to interrupt with words.

Suddenly the door slammed open, and a five-year-old stampeded in the room. "Kaa-chan!" she shrieked. "Can I see my new sister? Well? Can I? Can I?"

The two adults flinched at the noise their eldest was making, and quickly shushed her, looking worriedly at the baby. Fortunately, Anne was still sleeping soundly.

Reassured, Aurelius beckoned his oldest daughter to come and she ran towards him, scrambled on the bed, using him as foothold. Her boney knees dug unpleasantly in his calves but Aurelius didn't say anything. Unsteadily, she crawled towards her mother and nestled against her side, wide purple eyes trained on the newborn baby.

"Is that her?" the five year old asked quietly in awe, chewing on the strands of her short pink hair. The smiling couple nodded, and she looked even more awed. "But she's so ugly."

Marigold chuckled at her daughter's antics. "Yes, she does look a bit like a wrinkled monkey. But you did too, once upon a time. So did I, and your cute Tou-chan too."

Bonney frowned before whispering with absolute certainty, much to her parent's hilarity, "That's impossible. I wasn't ugly like that. And Kaa-chan's the prettiest in the whole of the world. Tou-chan... He could have been a wrinkled monkey." She paused to observe the rise and fall of her younger sibling's tiny chest. "What's her name?"

"We chose to call her Anne. Anne and Bonney Jewelry. The two most beautiful girls in the whole of North Blue, with your mother of course." Aurelius complimented his wife and daughters with a wry smile. "Now, I think it's way past your bedtime, young lady, and your Kaa-chan needs to rest a bit. She's tired, you know?"

The five year old nodded, and pressed a sloppy kiss to her mother's cheek. She hesitated and pressed a vey gentle kiss on her sister's forehead, before wiping her mouth with exaggerated disgust and a 'blegh!' and sliding down from the bed. Aurelius stood up from his chair, and picked Anne from his wife's arms, biding her good night tenderly, which she returned.

Marigold's exhaustion washed over her like one big tidal wave, and she fell into a deep sleep seconds after closing her eyes.

Aurelius watched his wife snore away lightly with a fond smile, one of his daughters nestled in the crook of his arm and the other holding on to his hand tightly. He signaled to Bonney to move silently with a hush gesture, and the three of them padded from the room, closing the door gently.

"Here, Anne-chan, Bonney-chan. We'll let your mama sleep, yeah?" Bonney gave a sleepy little nod that made him melt internally but Anne stirred in his arms. He cursed in his head: Bonney had waked her up with her loud entrance.

Anne blinked her baby blue eyes blearily a few times and yawned, exposing her gummy mouth to him. Then, something weird happened. She seemed to focus on him, with an expression that couldn't possibly belong to a very recent newborn: a look of assessment, of contemplation. Aurelius' skin broke out in goose bumps. His breathing stalled. What… What is that?

His newest daughter yawned again, even wider than before, and snuggled deeper in his arms, drifting off again. It can't be… It must be my imagination. I'm getting paranoid, seeing stuff. The Marines really did a number on me, damn it.

"Tou-can? What's wrong?" Bonney piped up, tugging at his hand worriedly. He blinked and smiled reassuringly.

"Nothing's wrong, sweetheart. Your Tou-chan's just a bit tired."

Bonnie didn't pressure him anymore, and he continued his walk towards Anne's nursery and Bonney's room. He opened the door clumsily with an elbow.

They had decorated it, him and Marigold, by themselves. It was a medium-sized, cozy room, with a window that gave whoever looked thought it a beautiful view of the beach. The walls were painted a nice sky-blue with patterns of sunflowers, Bonney's favorite flower, drawn rather skillfully in random places: on the walls, on the ceiling, on the floor. Two beds and a couple more light wood furnishings like shelves and dressers were arranged to make the most efficient use of the room, and leave a wide space for Bonney to play, and for Anne to learn how to walk. Plates of food were disposed everywhere and Aurelius sighed. His eldest's appetite was getting out of hand: at the mere age of five, she was like a living black hole with the way she could out eat even the burliest and biggest of men on the island. And that was no small feat, either.

What was worse was that she had the energy to match her metabolism: Bonney was rarely tired, and quite the energetic child. Aurelius had to begin her training early, just because it was the only thing that could wear his unnaturally lively daughter out. I hope Anne-chan isn't going to be like that… They'd eat us out of house and home in no time…

Aurelius strode over to the cot, and delicately set her down, tucking her in carefully before straightening and observing the sleeping baby. There was a plush Sea King toy in there with her, and Anne's chubby hand reached out and grasped it tightly. She looked so tiny in the big cot he had made for her, so helpless.

The ex-Marine felt a rush of protectiveness and love well up in his chest, a ball of warmth that pulsed in his chest but suffused him entirely. It completely won over the unease he had felt only moments before. Anne is just a baby, Aurelius thought. She couldn't have focused like that. I'm just tired, and it's nothing a good night of sleep won't fix. But first…

He tucked Bonney in, retrieved her plush pizza toy from the chest, and gave her a good night kiss before he left the room, quietly closing the door behind him.

The house was completely silent now, except for the slight groaning of its wooden beams as sea breezes pushed against them. Marigold likely wouldn't notice if he sneaked out: she had been exhausted, having just given birth and she was a really heavy sleeper on top of that too. Nightmares didn't seem to plague her as much as they did him. Every night, the crimes he'd commited as the world Government's dog came back to haunt him.

Aurelius opened one of the windows of the corridor, and jumped out, lightly landing on the balls of his feet after his fall from the second floor. The sand was cool under his feet, and he dug his toes in it with relish before setting out towards the sea. It didn't take long before he reached it.

It was getting dark now, and few early-rising stars were already dotting the sky. They, however, paled before the red broiling sun that was currently dipping lower and lower in the sea. Aurelius looked straight at it, ignoring his watering eyes and stubbornly defying the sun until at last it disappeared completely in the horizon.

At first, this ritual had been to check for any attacks. Marigold used to join him too but eventually grew the slightest bit complacent, in his opinion. Aurelius had stayed and stared at the sea for long periods at a time, anticipating retaliation from the Marines for his and his wife's desertions, as well as those of the other villagers. He was never lulled by the peace that reigned in Oase.

In the beginning, a lot of them reunited on the beach to serve as sentinels in tense silence. Gradually, they'd stopped coming and now he was the only one who stayed up to stand guard.

The particularities of this island made it so that this beach was the only safe way to dock on Oase Island: vicious, unpredictable whirlpools tended to form in the east, swamps bogged down intruders in the west, and a jagged, snow-capped mountain range cut off any encroachers in the north. That left the south, with the beach.

Aurelius, Marigold, and the rest of the islanders, all deserters of the Marines or some other kind of outlaw, had built a fortified village facing the most vulnerable direction, as well as a couple of other settlements in different part of Oase Island. They had built warden towers, and put in place a complex system of fire signals in order to quickly communicate between the several settlements in case of an emergency. Those who had once been rich or high-placed enough to buy untraceable Den-Den Mushis had gifted one to each settlement, to be used in only the gravest of situations.

Escape tunnels had been dug beneath the mountains, leading to a safe room deep inside where there was enough food for the Oase-an people to last two months. If that room was compromised in any way or the food ran out, another exit linked the room to the North edge of Oase. When the first settlers came to the inhospitable rock that had been Oase, a secret harbor had been excavated and hidden behind a clever imitation of a rock formation, courtesy of a Devil Fruit user who had the ability to manipulate plastic. The Oase-an navigators had long since learned how to skirt around the whirlpools, and could lead the boats to a nearby island.

Of course, all that would never survive a Buster Call, but Aurelius prayed it wouldn't ever come to this. For now, Oase was an unmapped island in the South Blue, and life was just fine the way it was.

Dawn was slowly creeping back in the sky as a pink haze in the east when he finally went home, and slipped in the bed he shared with his wife, joining her in sleep.

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**Tadaaa! Anne is the reincarnated daughter of two ex-Marines, who live in South Blue with their daughter Bonney. Rings a bell? It should ~**

**Anyway, the names are deliberate :**

**\- Oase means haven in German.**

**\- Aurelius means the golden one.**

**\- Marigold is a golden flower.**

**\- Anne Bonney was a famous female pirate, and Bonney was already named after her. So I gave the other half of that name to her new sister.**

**Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed. Don't forget to review, and give me constructive criticism. I'm sure I made at least half a dozen mistakes, if not more. It would help me out so much.**

**Hey, I just posted a chapter,**

**And this is crazy,**

**But I'd like a beta,**

**So PM me maybe ~**

**I should stick to writing, methinks.**

**Cheers,**

**Tetris Remix.**


	3. The Beginning and the End of a New Life

**I'm back, and this is chapter 3 of Rose. I'm sorry I didn't update in so long, I just had problems in real-life but I'm all better now. So here we go! Thank you to everyone who reviewed.**

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The biggest change, Rose reflected, was that she now had a family who loved her, with a sweet dictator for a mother, a softhearted paranoiac for a father and a living black hole for an older sister.

Oh yes, Back Then, she had also had a family. Petunia, Vernon and Dudley weren't really her family; for all that they were blood related. And then, there was Lily and James. She was the child of her parents, no doubt about it: there was cold, hard physical evidence to back it up. She had Lily's eyes, and James's face. Her intelligence. His athleticism. Her charm. His wit. Their bravery. The scar, too, was proof that she had been loved dearly. Love is the most powerful barrier-magic and all that – she couldn't have survived if her mother hadn't sacrificed herself out of true love for her.

But they weren't _her_ parents. They weren't there for her, _couldn't_ ever be there for her in her darkest times – not that she held it against them. They were half-forgotten shadows, vague figures she'd given substance and a face to with everything she'd heard about them, and their pictures. But she could never share the funny and exciting episodes of her Hogwarts days; the pranks, the feasts, and the Quidditch matches. Nor could she find comfort in the arms of Lily and break down into tears in James' lap when everything was too much and so wrong. The dead make for poor parents, to be sure.

This time around, though… She was actually coherent enough to completely and utterly bask in the feeling of belonging in a family, of being a puzzle-piece that slotted in perfectly with the rest, instead of being the perpetual odd-one out, the girl who stayed at Hogwarts for the Yuletide holidays.

She was Anne. She was a daughter. She was a sister. Not The Girl Who Lived, Should Have Died, And Finally Did. Not anymore, or ever again.

But even that fact couldn't save her from the utter boredom that being a baby entailed. It turned out that a baby's early life was terrifyingly uneventful. This last three months, her days had consisted of three things only: eat, shit, sleep. Wash, rinse, repeat, with the occasional brief glimpse of a still very blurry home.

Her brain was still capable of only very basic things, but recently, her eyesight and motor control had been returning a bit.

She could move her arms around now, and her voice was returning slowly: she couldn't form actual words but she could babble nonsensically, which made her parents squeal quite loudly, the overgrown children that they were. In fact, nearly everything she did made them squeal. They were constantly around her, stimulating her, cuddling her, playing with her, cooing in baby talk to her.

Even her sister, whom she now knew was called something along the lines of 'Bonnichan', participated in those rituals. She waved brightly colored toys at her that jingled, caught her baby eyes' attention and reflexively made her reach out clumsily to grab them. She'd pet her hair, and play peekaboo with her, and generally was a good sister. Her new family was almost too enthusiastic in their parenting, and there were days when she refused to acknowledge and play with them, when everything they did was too much and frankly, a bit annoying. Those grumpy days made them laugh fondly, and say something in that strange language of theirs before they left her alone to nap away her 'sourpuss' mood.

That, too, was new. The language was strangely musical, a jumble of consonants, no "l"s strangely, but rolling "r"s, and a lot of lilts and ups and downs. Anne liked to hear her parents talk: her mother and her sister shared a sweet, high voice. Her father's voice was also quite high-pitched, and not the tenor she would expect from a man whose height approached Hagrid's. Anne had tried to repeat certain words, but her mouth was still too uncoordinated, and only babbles left her mouth. It was like trying to talk with a mouth full of marbles and tissue. Strange, and uncomfortable though it lessened a bit every day.

Life Now was a whirl of sensations and emotions she was still struggling to cope with, but more and more, she found herself being happy. Content.

That alone brought the vertigo-inducing thought that she was completely cut off from everything she had once known, with no way of ever going back, that what she was experiencing right now was not carefully manipulated to shape her into a perfect sacrificial lamb. Her life here was completely and utterly her own, with no prophecy to dictate how she would die or live.

It brought a rush of heady excitement every time she thought about it, like the one she got from riding her Nimbus at break neck speeds but, being completely cut off had some bad sides. She had next to no chance of ever seeing someone she cared about before, and an even smaller chance of them ever recognizing _her. _

She'd have to get to know them all over again, with the painful feeling that it wouldn't be the same, the relationship. That thought also brought a heady rush to her head, but it was an uncomfortable one, that leeched the happiness from her, left her feeling choked up and light-headed, like a Dementor had just leaned back from a near Kiss. These are the only times she cries.

Sleep is the only respite she gets, and so, in a decidedly un-gryffindorish way, Anne slept away this thought as much as she could. It was an imperfect solution, because she usually woke up with her heart clamped in a vice grip after dreaming of Ron, Hermione, Neville, of _Hogwarts_, of magic. It was unfortunately the only solution she had, because an Obbliviate was definitely out of her reach.

Speaking of magic, it hadn't surfaced yet. It was there; she could feel it, like a tiny, clear little spring, trickling steadily, accumulating into a refreshing pool just behind her sternum. It wasn't ready for use, being too small, and so Anne just enjoyed the way it calmed her to concentrate on it when her parents became too much, like right now.

"Who's a pretty baby? You! Yes, you are, yes you are!" Marigold cooed at her grouchy baby. Well, Anne tried to look grouchy and threatening, but with her short, out-of-control pink hair and her chubby cheeks, she looked less threatening than a kitten. The over-excited mother picked her up gently, and set her on her feet before slowly letting go.

"Come on Anne, baby : stand up," Marigold encouraged her daughter to take her first steps by shuffling backwards a bit, putting some distance between her and her daughter. "Come to Kaa-chan, darling. You can do it."

Anne glared and looking straight in the eyes of her new Kaa-chan, plopped down on her bottom, and laid down, resolutely not looking at her.

Aurelius poked his head form the kitchen when he heard his wife wail. "What is it, Mary?"

"She won't walk," Marygold pouted, completely undignified. "She won't even look at her cute Kaa-chan!"

Aurelius snorted softly, "Of course she won't. She's just six months old. You can't expect her to be up and about, you know: babies take time to grow."

The new mother just wailed louder, until Bonney came from her room to investigate.

"What is it Kaa-chan?"

"Nothing! Your sister's just a not-cute baby! She won't try to walk!"

"Ara? She's just a baby! Of course she won't walk!"

"Ara? What did you say? You might be cute, but that doesn't mean you can get away with cheek, young lady!"

"Bring it!"

And then mother and child dissolved into a play fighting mess of pink hair and giggles, leaving baby Anne to keep glaring at the floor until she fell asleep.

At this point Aurelius just sighed fondly, and went back into the kitchen: Bonney ate enormous amounts of food, so meals were always a hassle to prepare. He dreaded the time that would come when Anne fully grew up and developed a stomach and teeth strong enough for solid food-with the way she constantly needed to be breastfed by Marygold, he had an idea that she was going to share more than her sister's hair color.

* * *

Months flew, and Anne grew, slowly but surely learning how to walk, talk and finally, eat glorious solid food. (She'd noticed she ate a lot more, but considering the fact that she was near starved for the majority of her first childhood, really had nothing to compare to this new appetite. So she just ate, unaware that she was consuming enough food for at least two grown men while only being a measly five years old. Naturally, her sister was even worse, being older.)

What also changed was the training. When she learned to walk, and talk, Kaa-chan and Tou-chan, as she'd taken to calling Marygold and Aurelius, took her and her sister on to weekly weird trips, further inside the Island, into the mountains or the swamps. There, they'd sit down and teach her all about survival- what food to eat, and what definitely NOT to eat. What could help you, and what could poison you- or inversely, your enemies. How to hunt, with traps first, and then real live weapons. How to track animals, and at the same time cover your own tracks. Anne was curious as to why exactly they needed to know all this, and so on one of the trips, when they'd just finished the lesson on shelters and were getting ready to settle down for the night in a cave, she'd crept closer to the fire they'd built and asked Kaa-chan.

Marygold's eyebrows had furrowed, her shoulders had tightened, and she'd pursed her lips, debating whether to tell her daughter about her past, or not. Eventually, she'd caved in when faced with Anne's remarkably knowing jewel-like eyes.

"Some people are after Kaa-chan and Tou-chan. In fact, everyone in the Village, we've all got someone out there looking for us. Some of us were pirates, before, and now we want to give up that life. Some of us were Marines, and now, we realize that the World Government isn't always just, for all they preach about Justice, my cute darling. So we came here, your Tou-chan and I, when we were tired of being part of something so awful. And…" Here she had paused, looking at her husband and Bonney as they were laying down further away, looking at the stars. "The Marines don't take desertion that well. So we've come here, all of us, putting our past behind us, and forging a new future in this haven. That's where the name comes from."

Anne had whispered, green eyes wide. "Oase."

Marygold had stroked her daughter's head fondly, burying her tapered but calloused fingers in the long pink locks. "Yes, Oase. It means 'haven" in a very old language that no one speaks anymore- that's what Auntie said, and she's an archeologist, which means she studies old stuff. That's also why Tou-chan goes out every night, to see if anyone is coming – I know you've seen him, my cute Anne. You've always been very smart. But don't worry! Oase is well protected and is completely off the maps. Even if, by some miracle, we were discovered, there's an elaborate plan to keep us all safe."

The littlest witch had taken in the information religiously, and applied herself to the training with a fervor matched only by her sister. That was officially- on the side, she also trained her unique talent with her sister.

Anne had revealed her magic to her sister quite accidentally, at six years old, while she was struggling to levitate a leaf from the floor of their shared bedroom floor. Bonney had typically barged in, running as fast as her short but getting longer legs could carry her.

"DINNER IS REAAAADY! Anne?!", she yelled at the top of her lungs despite the fact that she was in the same room as her sister.

Anne predictably startled and the leaf that was trembling in the air a few centimeters off the ground, was immediately consumed by a puff of purple flame into shiny cinders which had then whizzed all around the room with high-pitched whirrs.

"Please don't tell Kaa-chan and Tou-chan." Anne pleaded as she rushed to close the door of their room behind them, staring into the eyes of her gobsmacked sister.

Bonney opened and closed her mouth several times. "What was that?! Did you eat a Devil Fruit?"

Anne poked her fingers together, worrying her bottom lip between her milk teeth. "No… It's… It's something I can do. It's magic."

Stars filled Bonney's eyes, and all thought of food was promptly forgotten in the face of this new discovery. She lunged and grabbed the shoulders of her baby sister, shaking wildly.

"Wow! What else can you do? Can you control it? Can you turn people into toads? (Here, the influence of Aurelius' obsession with fairy tales could be seen) Does that mean I can have magic too?"

"Lots of stuff, I'm learning, probably but it'd be very messy, and no, to answer all of your questions," Anne deadpanned. "It's something I discovered recently, and I don't know how to control it."

Actually, she had tried to control it, but it was very hard without a wand. It was really frustrating, to know all these spells, without the capacity to cast them. Usually, a wand would help: it acted as a hose, with the magic core being the water source. It funneled magic and intent, and as such, helped reduce magic dispersion.

Now, without that funnel, her magic was acting wonky, not obeying her at all. It was like trying to wrestle with something slightly denser than air: possible, but near on futile for the paltry results that came out of months of practicing. Still, it was better than nothing, and if Tou-chan and Kaa-chan were right, anything that gave you an edge in battle was to be seized at all costs.

Bonney sat down in front of her sister, plucking out a feather from a nearby toy and put it on the floor, in the middle. "Try again," she commanded, and when Anne was just about to protest, she added with a sense of assurance that, coming out of a kid only eleven years old, was startling. " I know you'll get it this time."

Anne did as she was told, closing her eyes, and reaching out to the now substantial pool of magic resting just beneath her sternum. She guided it along her arms, to her fingers, and out the finger tips, where it came out as faint wisps of light- this is where it got tricky. Curling her mental hands around these wisps, she herded them to the feather, but she had to do it several times before they deigned to cooperate and form into a shiny, slightly transparent around the object she was trying to levitate. Sweat beaded at Anne's temples as she willed the cup to lift: it did so slowly, millimeter by millimeter inching off the floor, taking the feather along with it.

And then, as she was about to cheer, the feather curled in on itself and with a squeak exploded in a puff of green. Anne dropped her hands, and only just reigned in her instinct to scream in elation: this was more progress than she'd had in weeks! Bonney just stared at her sister fondly, before her center of reasoning was promptly relocated to her stomach when it growled loudly.

"Let's go eat! We'll train you some more later!"

Magic training became a nightly ritual, and soon, the equivalents of the first year charms were back in her repertoire. Of course, it was a pipe dream to hope for the secret to be kept when they were two little girls living with two highly –trained ex-Marine operatives. Her Kaa-chan had acted hurt and withdrawn for a few weeks, until Anne asked to have a conversation with her, face-to-face. There was a lot of shouting, especially since Marygold couldn't believe her daughter would hide something this important from her and Anne, who was so fiercely independent, chafed against the authority her Kaa-chan wielded, but in the end, they had come out of the room looking far more at ease than before. It still didn't stop Marygold from increasing the number of drills she put her children through, though she left the magic training to Anne and Bonney alone.

A routine was established, and everything was well, until, finally the Potter Luck kicked in.

* * *

It was in the middle of winter, when the sea was the calmest, that the alarm rang. By then, Bonney and Anne were ten and fifteen respectively, fully capable of understanding exactly what the alarm meant, as they woke up in their beds, minds whirling.

"That's the alarm, Bonney!" Anne jumped out of bed, and went to the corner of their room to lift the trap door hidden under a mat, just underneath the window. Bonney quickly rolled out of bed, and joined her sister in pulling out suitcases filled with the bare essentials from the hole dug in the sandy ground. They were going to have to leave the Island, because their location, somehow had just been compromised - someone was coming to the Island, and considering the inhabitants, there was a fair chance that this was anything but good.

Kaa-chan and Tou-chan burst in their room, already fully dressed, their weapons drawn. A fierce light glinted in their eyes.

"Darlings, you know the drill! Go to the mountains, to the cave we usually train. There's the entrance to the tunnels we talked about, those that run just beneath the surface of the Island. Take the tunnel that's marked with the red cross, and follow it out to the edge of Oase. There should be stealth caravels waiting there, with an Auntie ready to man them out of the circle of whirlpools." Tou-chan said, all in one breath. He and Kaa-chan grinned reassuringly, and they each pressed a loving peck on Anne and Bonney's forehead, before pushing them out of the house. "Kaa-chan and Tou-can will follow you after, when the situation's been dealt with! Now, go!"

Anne and Bonney nodded, and suitcases in hand, ran as fast as they could, fear gnawing in their stomachs and tears threatening to spill from their eyes. The sand and the soft vegetation of the beach soon gave way for the spikier hardy plants of the inner Island. It was painful to run bare foot through the prickly bushes, but they were trained to withstand pain and the soles of their feet had toughened some over the years, so they barreled on through all the same. Quicker than ever before, they ran up the mountain, to the cave where all these years ago Kaa-chan had revealed her past to her. There were still traces of past training sessions, in the soot markings on the ground from the old fires they'd made.

Anne didn't stop to consider them or her memories, and dragged Bonney when she stopped, tears in her eyes, wordlessly communicating to her that right now, their escape was the priority. Bonney wiped her tears away, but her shoulders still shook with suppressed sobs as they both got down to search the floor for the entrance of the tunnels.

The youngest Jewelry sister felt out with her fingertips a crack in the floor too regular to be anything but the entrance, and quickly concentrated to levitate the slab of stone concealing the entry of the tunnels with her magic, Bonney helping to shift it to the side. They went down the stairs carved in the stone of the mountain, and closed the entryway neatly with the slab, plunging them in the dark.

A wand less Lumos later, and a small ball of light was illuminating their tired faces. Anne coughed from the dust that had accumulated for years in the tunnels, a testament to the complete anonymity that Oase had benefited from before: this escape route had never been used before. Bonney was on all fours, panting, and her long pink hair was a mess of knots, filled with leaves and small sticks. Anne crawled on her knees, and laid a comforting hand on her sister's shoulder, before wordlessly picking out the greenery stuck in their hair, first out of her's and then out from her sibling's.

When she finished, Bonney seemed to have re-centered herself, and got to her feet, helping her sister do the same.

"We should get going," Bonney said wearily. "Come on. Tou-chan said we had to follow the red cross, right?"

"Yeah."

Anne and Bonney D. Jewelry walked hand in hand deeper in the tunnels dug in the heart of the mountains, not knowing that this was the last time they'd see Oase.

* * *

Aurelius and Marygold watched their daughters run out for as long as they could see them, until they disappeared beyond the horizon, at which point they Soru'd to the Village.

It was a complete mess, and everyone was running around like headless chickens. Marygold breathed in deep and channeled her old vice-admiralty voice.

"Everyone! Settle down!"

Her voice thundered through the square, bolstered by her Haki. Everyone froze and turned a waiting ear.

Marygold smirked. "Good! Now who here rang the alarm? Describe what you saw. What type of vessel was it? Which direction is it coming from? How far was it?"

An elderly villager raised an arm. "It was me, I rang the alarm, Ma'am. They're coming in from the beach. By my estimation, it should arrive in about thirty minutes. But Ma'am… It was a Marine vessel, a dreadnought. It wasn't alone. They were seven more. Eight in total… It's…. It's a Buster Call."

Whispers broke out, gradually gaining in force until the town was in a frenzy again, everyone having redoubled their efforts to pack and run away.

Marygold swore, and screamed again. "Everyone stop!"

The Village place gradually became quiet once more, as a massive Haki forced them to be still and quiet. Aurelius stood beside his wife, eyes flashing and daring anyone to speak out against his wife.

"Are we Oase-ans or not? Were we not once great pirates, high-profile Marines or legendary bounty-hunters? It seems like everyone has once forgotten, but we are strong, and we are many. As a Marine, I know that no one has ever survived a Buster Call. Not. One. Island. Joylet. Hearupo Island. Ohara. These islands are all wastelands now.

But Oase! Oase will make history, as the first Island to successfully fight back a Buster Call!

Let's get organized! Those with children and the elderly, go to the tunnels. Everyone else, prepare for battle! Sharpen your blades, cock your flintlocks, and man the cannons! Oase, let's give them Hell!"

The square erupted in movement, but everything was organized. The children and the elders were quickly brought to the tunnels on the back of the Sora-users. The rest, congregated to the beach, having retrieved their weapons. Far in the distance, the ominous shapes of eight massive Marine ships crawled closer.

"Sharpshooters, and those with long-distance abilities, form a line in the back. Aim at the farthest left. Ready?"

"Yeah!"

"Fire!"

The deafening sounds of cannons firing as well as Rankyakus being launched made the Oase-ans cover their ears, and watch in trepidation at the dreadnoughts. Just as the cannon balls neared the ship they were aiming for, a flash of light streaked in front of it, and they fell in the water, ripped to pieces. A wall of magma rose up just before the prow, and the Rankyakus crashed harmlessly against it. It dissipated soon after.

Marygold turned around and snatched an eyeglass from a nearby villager, who'd turned as white as a sheet. What she saw with it, made her pale too.

"Shit. It's Borsalino and Sakazuki."

Aurelius looked queasy. "Why did they bring two Admirals? This is overkill, we're an island of refugees. Unless… Someone told them. They know we're not just any refugees, that some of us were ex-Marines… Or part of Roger's crew."

He spun around and glared at the villagers who were there. "Who?" He thundered. "Who told them? We have a traitor in our midst! Someone revealed to them who we really are. They've brought two Admirals. Oase is going to be completely wiped out. Who contacted them?!"

The beach was completely silent, until a voice rose up. "I did."

Everyone rounded on them, weapons drawn. It was one of the Aunties of the Island. No-one had ever really noticed her, because everyone just lived their lives according to the unspoken but very real rule that someone's past was in their past. That was why ex-Marines and ex-Pirates were able to cohabitate, and even form families together. No-one probed, and everyone mostly got along.

Diana Kagawuchi held their eyes defiantly, her face a mess of wrinkles and scars. "I couldn't! I couldn't live with those damn Pirates! Sasaki, your crew killed my son! He- he was an Ensign and you monsters executed him! I can't live peacefully with you, while knowing that you were the ones who took him away from me!"

Here she crumpled to the ground, hands clenching in the sand. "But, my son will be avenged. All you pirate scum will be executed like you deserve, as well you run-away Marines. You're a curse upon the ideal of Justice!"

"You idiot! You'll die with us too!"

Kawaguchi cackled, eyes rolling madly in their sockets. "No! They told me they were going to spare me! I'll be back in the Marines, and I'll be promoted to the rank of Captain, at last! My son's spirit will be able to peacefully rest, knowing his mother avenged him."

Aurelius lunged and gripped her collar with his hands, lifting her up. " You moron! This is a Buster Call, they'll kill everyone, no exceptions. Cannons don't differentiate! What else did you tell them?"

The madwoman giggled, even as Aurelius shook her like a rag-doll, growling madly. "Everything. I told them everything! The tunnels, and the color system, and the cove, and the path between the whirlpools, and the Den Den Mushis, everything – no one will escape," she shrieked between bouts of hysterical laughter. Aurelius dropped her to the sandy ground in disgust. "There's ambushes ready everywhere!"

"Aurelius. Anne and Bonney, they're in the tunnels!" Marygold sobbed. "Our cute daughters, they'll die, they won't survive, they'll be killed.."

Aurelius felt his heart clench. "Anne told us… Remember, Anne told us about what she was training herself to do. That teleportation thing. There's still hope that our daughters can survive, if nothing else." he breathed out. A fire started burning in his heart, one fueled by desperation. "All we have to do is give them time, and hope for the best. The least Oase can do, is go down fighting."

He drew his Marine standard issued katana, and faced the beach. Marygold did the same, and slipped her hand in his. Together they faced the sea, determination shining in their eyes that they would do their best so their daughters could survive.

* * *

**And that's a wrap! It feels weird to write now after I didn't for so long, but what are you going to do? Anyways, hope you enjoyed, and don't forget to leave a review to tell me what you think. **

**Cheers,**

**XXX**


	4. Borsalino, Don't Underestimate Children

**Thank you so much for being patient! Life blindsinded me so badly, I completely forgot about fanfiction for a loooong while. Thank you for all your faves, follows, reviews and such! I appreciate every single one of them!**

**The reason for the false alarm was that I tried copypasting the chapter directly, but Fanfiction formatting kicked its ass and I only noticed once I'd already posted! I had to take it off, and do it again.. Anyways, enjoy!**

* * *

Borsalino or, Don't Underestimate Children ( Especially Magical Ones)

Anna sneezed, for the umpteenth time since they'd gotten in the tunnels. To be fair, they were cold, breezy and dusty, as well as cramped: even with her measuring a measly 4 feet and 7 inches, she had to bend her head to avoid bumping it on the uneven ceiling. Bonney was faring even worse: as a fifteen year old nearing the end of her massive growth spurt, she still had trouble adjusting to her long limbs. The tunnels frequently echoed eerily with the sounds of muffled thumps followed by increasingly creative curses.

"We're nearly there," Bonney paused, and sniffed the air. " The air is getting fresher, and there's the smell of the ocean."

Anne sniffed the air as well, and caught the particular scents of salt and decomposing seaweed that made up ocean-smell. "Let's get going, we're wasting time."

The two sisters continued to drag their suitcases along. They didn't speak at all, except to tell the other whenever they found the red crosses that marked the right tunnel to take. Both had too many things going on in their minds.

Bonney was thinking about the terrified faces their parents had worn when they thought she wasn't looking, just before she and her sister had left for the escape routes. It was jarring to see those people, who'd always looked so strong and self-assured, look so scared. Of course, she'd heard of Buster Calls. As the daughter of Ex-Marines, she knew they were the epitome of what was wrong with the World Government: an armada so destructive it laid waste to entire islands that dared to rail against the Government, killing all dissidents in one fell swoop.

Kaa-chan had said that a good government should always leave a voice for the oppositionists, except if those people were trying to stir hatred in the hearts of the people. But if the Government didn't take critique in account, they were stagnating, useless, rotting – fit to be replaced. In fact, Bonney hadn't really mentioned it to her parents, but she admired pirate crews for living under their own power, for being rebels in a world that was ready to do away with them all. Of course, Bonney knew pirates weren't always good –she'd heard stories, mostly from the Aunties and the Uncles of the Village, of pirate scum that pillaged.

But she'd also heard far, far worse things about the WG – tales of Islands being ransomed, their people exploited and discriminated against. The few ex-slaves Fishmen that lived on the Island were the living proof of that: on Oase, they bared their branded backs proudly, owning their status as liberated slaves.

When the nights were warm, during the short Oase-an summers, she'd sometimes slip away with Anne to the Village and ask for their stories, on the sun-warmed sand of the beach, facing the South Blue. The Fishmen were always glad to talk about their pasts, to share their stories with a willing ear. They censured their stories when they were too young to know about certain things, but as the pink-haired sisters grew older, they added the details that they'd kept from them before, about the Tenryuubito and the abuse that they had rained down on them as their "property".

The first one to open up about his past, to truly reveal everything was Venja, a merman old enough to have grown his fish-legs. That night, they'd learned the origin of the horrific scars lining his grey skin - countless tiny half-moon puckered marks peppered it, interspersed with sheets of smooth scar skin.

"One day," he said, eyes haunted, "They dropped me in an aquarium. I didn't understand at first, but I quickly got it when they dumped a bucketful of blood in the water. The tank was full of wolf fish…they're nasty things, wolf fish: they get about as big as a cat, and they're carnivores." He swallowed and continued on, voice choked. "The blood worked them into a feeding frenzy. At first, I was quick enough to avoid them, but after a while, I got tired…"

He'd stopped there, and Bonney and Anne'd filled in the blanks.

Venja's wasn't the only horrific story, and as the voices of the Fishmen filled those warm summer nights, the Jewelry sisters grew to hate the World Government more and more.

No, Bonney knew full well the World Government wasn't anything like they set themselves up to be, the shiny moral paragons of Justice this and Justice that. Pirates weren't much better, but they still trumped the WG in the fact that they never pretended to be moral examples. In fact, most pirates gleefully put themselves out there as everything an upstanding citizen shouldn't be. Bonney found that those stories were usually the most entertaining and wild.

Anne for her part quietly thought about what was waiting for them outside the tunnels. Her magic had been stirring unnaturally in her body, restlessly cycling and making the ends of her limbs tingle. It also made her ears pound, and her hearing swing between hypersensitive, to the point where she could hear Bonney's heartbeat, to near-on deafness. It grew worse as they walked, and Anne finally spoke up.

"Bonney… I don't feel so good." She whimpered. The tingling had grown worse and worse, and was now outright pain. Her hearing had been on hypersensitive for a couple of meters, and every little sound she could now hear was downright painful. Anne crumpled to the ground, and Bonney threw herself to the ground and caught her head before it connected with the ground.

"What's wrong, Annie? What's happening?"

Anne flinched; her head felt like it was going to explode. "My magic… I don't know, it's never happened…It's too loud. My ears, they're so sensitive…" Even hearing her own voice was painful, despite the fact that she was whispering.

Bonnie was panicking. "It's going to be okay. Hold on, I'll get you on my back. I'm leaving the bags behind, unless you can levitate one."

Anne nodded and paled even more when the motion made the world do a nauseating spin. The suitcases still rose up a few seconds later, shakily but surely.

The elder Jewelry sister sighed and manoeuvred her arms underneath her sibling's legs before coaxing her thin arms to rest across her front and lifting her. Bonnet moved as quietly and smoothly as possible along the tunnel again, taking care not to jostle the frail body hanging on her back. Annie was so light; she barely noticed her weight. "Come on Annie. We're nearly there."

Fortunately the light was still there, obnoxiously bobbing cheerfully ahead, so Bonney could see where she was going. The tunnels gave her the creeps, and now this? A stupid magic-weird thingy that made her sister sick? This situation was already crappy, and it was getting even worse.

* * *

Borsalino perched on the edge of the crow's nest, his long legs hanging out, swinging lazily in the light breeze that blew tonight. His newly bought pair of sunglasses made it difficult to see in the night, but even with them on, Oase was clear ahead. He grinned slowly, as the ship neared the shore, which was black with people. "This is where you've been hiding, Aury, Mary, huuuuuuh?"

Aurelius and Marigold Jewelry, ex-Marines, high-ranked too: they knew a lot about the World Government's less than savoury deals, what with the embezzlement, the fraud and the what-not that came with running a super-power.

The Den-Den Mushi in his pocket started to ringng, vibrating with a gentle "puru-puru" sound and the Light Logia slowly took it out, holding the transmitter to his mouth, and picked up.

"Borsalino," Sakazuki's voice immediately came out of the Den Den Mushi's receiver, terse as ever. "Get down here. We're starting the attack in 15 minutes. The announcement will be broadcasted soon."

"Maaaa, Sakazuki, calm down, huuuuuh? If it's fifteen minutes, I have plenty of time, yeeees?"

The Den Den Mushi's face reddened, and it frowned. " No. That's an order. Get down here, _now_. I won't have Absolute Justice fail because you weren't serious enough. These truants need to be punished, and to do that, the Buster Call must go off without a hitch." The bionic snail closed its eyes, and the call disconnected. Borsalino sighed, but shoved the little critter away in his pocket.

"Sakazuki's too eager, he needs to calm down, huuh? It's so scaaaary when he gets into that Absolute Justice thing." He said to no one, before jumping down to the deck. Down there, with the usual brisk efficiency of the Marines, soldiers were already formed into squadrons, and were repeating over the plans they'd made with the information the Oase-an traitor Kawaguchi had given them. He had to give credit where credit was due; the Oase-ans had really gone all out with the escape plans. Too bad all those efforts were for nothing – once you knew the layout of the Island, everything fell apart. Two stealth ships that had navigated the whirlpool rich waters on the other side of the Island had already set up ambushes to wait for the escapees.

Borsalino turned around when he felt, rather smelt Sakazuki's presence behind his back. Ever since the Red Hound of the Marines had eaten that Devil Fruit of his, a cloud of superheated air and the unpleasant smell of sulphur followed him around, like he was a Devil fresh out of Hell.

"Borsalino. You know what you have to do. Don't let anybody escape, especially not the children of the Jewelrys: their bloodline must not be allowed to continue."

"Yeah, yeaaah. You don't have to nag, huuuh?"

The Yellow Monkey of the Marines disappeared in a flash of light, to take his place on the stealth ships as cleanup.

Sakazuki gritted his teeth and turned around, to face the shore. A fanatical light gleamed in his eyes as he watched over those he would punish, running around on the shore like so many ants to be crushed. Their very lives were an insult to the World Government. Escaped slaves, former pirates, deserters from the Marines, they all needed to die. A sick grin twisted his features. Tonight, Absolute Justice would prevail.

"Start the broadcasting."

* * *

"Bonney…" Anne whispered tiredly. "Bonney, where are the others?"

Bonney frowned and turned her head slightly. "What do you mean, Annie?"

"The others… The other villagers, the other refugees… Where..."

Understanding dawned on Bonney's face. "They're prolly behind us, Annie. Don't worry so much. Are.. Are you feeling any better?"

"Hmm-mm. My ears are still really sensitive though. I can tell we're really near the end of the tunnels… But it's weird. I can also hear men.. shouting?"

The elder Jewelry sister froze. "What do you mean, shouting? What are they saying? Are you sure they're men?"

Anne wiggled to signal she wanted to get down. She dropped to her feet with a tap that nearly overwhelmed her hearing, but she managed to contain the reflexive wince. "I, I don't know what they're saying exactly… They're angry, and I can hear people crying…I think something bad happened."

Just then, the unmistakeable bang of a gunshot pierced through the shouting and the wailing and the heartbeats and all the little sounds that were clogging her ears. Bonney stiffened, signalling she'd heard it too.

"What was that?"

Anne looked grim. "I think the escape route's been compromised."

Now the wailing had stopped, but the shouting was getting nearer, and louder, much louder, along with the sounds of a lot of footsteps. "Bonney! People are storming the tunnels, from the other side! I think they're Marines!"

Bonney swore, and quickly drew two hunting knives she always kept on her, handing one to her sister when she'd assured she was feeling good enough to fight. Anne took it and quickly ripped a piece of cloth from her nightdress with it, wrapping it around her head to block her ears, alleviating some of the hypersensitivity. The footsteps were getting so close that even Bonney could hear them now.

Three Stupefys flew like so many little red fireflies, and the first three Marines heading the squadron dropped. It was a small squadron of about ten men or so, armed to the teeth, but they were well-trained, immediately, they lifted their weapons and began firing.

Anne, dodged the bullets as best as she could with her eyes bandaged, throwing up spilt-second Protegos the rest of the time and sneaking nasty hexes between the spray. Bonney was a sight to behold as she shed all her clumsiness in battle, her knives flashing up to parry the bullets with as fast as they came.

The Marines eventually saw that bullets were next to useless, and stopped firing, instead charging with their bayonets drawn. Anne rushed ahead, slipping under the guard of one particularly brawny Marine, and delivered a nasty heel-first kick into his vulnerable stomach, following it up with a palm strike to his nose that drew a satisfying crunch from it. The Marine fell backwards, dead, and Anne vaulted back to avoid a sideways swipe, letting Bonney grab the bladed weapon between her knives, before she fired a point-blank Sectusempra on the extended arms. The spell cut through the flesh to the bone, and the Marine to whom they belonged had just the time to scream before his throat was slit by a vengeful Bonney,

"Anne, can you apparate from the tunnel?"

The 10 year old shook her head. "I don't want to to risk it, I don't feel so well and I don't know how far I can go."

Bonney cursed, " We have to get out of the tunnel, without being seen. The others are probably dead," Anne winced, " Listen, Anne, if anything goes wrong, Mom and Dad would kill me if you got hurt. That's why I want you to take the first chance you get to Apparate away, even if you have to leave me behind." Bonney's purple eyes were hard, cutting into her with laser intensity.

Shoulders shaking with repressed sobs, Anne shook her head. "Bonney, I ca-can't l-leave you behind! I don't kn-know anything!"

A hand dropped on her head, and ruffled her chin length hair. " Yeah you do. You'll do fine, and anyway, that's worst-case scenario! We don't have much time, so let's get going, but remember: anything goes wrong, and you Apparate without me, no matter what. Yeah?"

"Y-yeah," Anne sniffled.

"Oooooh, how touching. The looove of two sisters is really something to see, huuuuh?"

Anne and Bonney choked and whirled around. A man, who hadn't been there not even half a second ago, was lounging on the wall, his left hand a ball of yellow light reflecting off his dark eyes ominously.

"Noooow, I don't know, but might you be the daughters of Aurelius and Marygold? You look juuuuust like them, you knooooow?"

Bonney hissed at him ferally, moving to put her younger sister behind her. " What's it to you old man?"

"Oh, noooothing," Borsalino drawled. "Your parents just have a kill-on sight order, and coincidentally, so do their potential children. Sooooo irresponsible of them to leave the Marines, and have children, am I riiiiiiight?"

"Shut up, you bastard! You don't know our parents! They're good people, unlike you Marines, the dogs of the World Government!" Bonney growled, hackles raised like a cornered wolf.

"Myyyyyyyy, myyyyyy! You have your mother's tempeeerr! How touuuuchy! And who's that behind you? Your little sister? Helloooooo, sweetheart."

"Don't you touch her, you scum! I'll kill you!"

Borsalino sighed, and in a flash, Bonney was crashing against the wall of the tunnel, slumping in the hole her body had made by crashing into the solid rock. The man had moved at the speed of light and kicked her in the midsection. He now walked leisurely towards Anne, tutting.

"I hope you're more poliiite than your sister, little girl."

Anne shuddered at his oily, nonchalant tone, still trying to understand what had happened. One minute, Bonney was in front of her, the next she was gone.

"What's the matter? Are you scareeeed?" Borslaino asked, smiling at the trembling form of the ten year old. "You should be. Your paaaaarents? They're dead. The other Oase-ans? Dead tooooooo. And soooooooon, you and you sister will be the latest casualties and Oase will become another island wiped ooooff the face of the world for Justiiiiiice. So. Are you scaaaaaaaaared?"

Anne who'd been staring at the floor looked up, eyes filled with hate and flashing a dangerous poison-green. During the stranger's speech, anger had pooled in her chest, hot and painful and itching to have an outlet. She had the life she'd wanted all along, and now it was being taken from her, and this man was taunting her about it, like it was a joke. "No. I'm angry."

And then the tunnel resounded with the name of a single spell she'd managed to cat only twice Before, screamed with all the breath in Anne's lungs.

"_Crucio!"_

Borsalino immediately crumpled, hit by the Torture curse's red light point blank. He contorted on the ground helplessly under the ravages of the curse that Anne continually fed with all her weakening anger and energy as she backed away slowly to where her sister was already stirring in the wall. Bonney struggled free of the hole just as Anne fell to the ground, legs giving out form under her. She was very cold to the touch, and her eyes held a fevered light, like she'd just gotten a hit of some kind of drug. Bonney winced when Anne struggled a bit in her arms: obviously she'd broken more than a few bones when she'd hit that wall. Ribs, too, if the pain that flared anytime she breathed or Anne dug her bony elbows in her chest was any indication.

"Come on, Anne, we gotta go," the elder sister croaked lowly, throat clogged with dust and fear.

Anne struggled even more, whimpering quietly before an unwelcome voice cut in again, too soon, they hadn't gotten enough time, Crucio wasn't enough, was this the power of Logias?

"Thaaaaaaaat. Was very painful, little girl." The Marine who'd crumpled to the ground and was screaming his throat raw not even two minutes ago coughed, winded from the surge of pain that had engulfed his body. Light now poured from his skin in pulses, each one brighter than the last until the whole tunnel was illuminated by a man-shaped miniature sun. "I was willing to let you play around a bit, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to finish this," the sun sighed, before coughing some more. "Figuuuuuures Marygold and Aurelius would have such troublesome children."

Anne growled, mind wild with fear and the needs to protect, to hurt, to avenge, to run, to go away from the danger. The man was made of pure magic now, and it shined bright, inviting, beautiful, warm, and delicious, even as her core gaped, empty, hungry.

And then several things happened at once. Borsalino let loose a stream of pure deadly light, a lance made from sunlight itself.

Bonney tightened her hold against Anne, not caring about the pain, her eyes widened as the lance of light zoomed closer, unbelievably fast.

But Anne opened her magical core and her mouth and her self wide, and _devoured _the beam of light, wrestling it from the control of the Logia, _inhaled _it and melded it to her own magic. It filled the core up to the brim, it overflowed, and soon she was glowing too, as bright, no brighter than Borsalino. If he'd been a sun, she was a supernova, an explosion of brute force and power, heat and light and flames and raw untamed power.

And then Anne tore through the fabric of the world, and _Apparated _as far as she could, farther then she could have thought possible, not even having a destination in mind, the need to get away stronger than anything she'd known saw what had happened.

Borsalino barely had time to see the child take his power and make it her own, before the sonic boom of air rushing to fill up the space that had been cleaved straight form this corner of reality deafened him as he had been blinded by the child-supernova.

When his senses returned to him, the two children had disappeared, along with a perfect sphere of the rock bed that the tunnels had been made of, its centre being the subject of his thoughts. Anne D. Jewelry was dangerous.

Also, Sakazuki was going to kill him.

* * *

When Anne woke up, it was alone on a rocky beach with a lock of long pink hair, longer than her own by far.

When Bonney woke up, she was shivering, her small sleeping short unfit for the freezing tundra she'd found herself in.

It would be years before they found each other again.

* * *

**Again, thank you for waiting so patiently! Hope you enjoyed, and don't forget to tell me what you thought by leaving a review!  
**

**Cheers, Tetris Remix **


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